ROMANIAN ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS, July 5, 2010. Prices of residential properties fell 3.9 pct in the first quarter of 2010 against the baseline year of 2009, reads a release of the National Statistics Institute (INS). The price decrease was noticeable for both property categories: ask prices for apartments dropped 3.8 percent in Q1 2010 y-o-y, while house prices also decreased 4.3 percent from the same reference. For the first time, INS released on June 29 information on the evolution of residential property prices. Works on the calculation methodology began in 2008 in collaboration between INS, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) and the National Union of Notaries Public of Romania (UNNPR). INS began collecting information from notary offices in January 2009, with assistance from the local chambers of notaries public. The residential price index measures the quarterly evolution of residential property prices compared to the year 2009 (the starting year of the survey). The index is calculated based on a survey conducted by notary offices beginning with 2009. The goal of the survey is to measure the quarterly evolution of residential property prices against the baseline year 2009 (investigation “year zero”), not to calculate an average rate per square meter or an average value per transaction in relation to the number of rooms and useful surface. The data is collected by monthly submission of an electronic questionnaire. The index is a Laspeyres-type aggregate index, which presupposes measuring the evolution of prices in the current period against a base period (2009) for apartment-type buildings, individual buildings and residential properties overall. The estimation method used is the “hedonic” regression that measures the correlation between the dependent variable (the transaction price) and the elements characteristic for the formation of residential property prices.
INS publishes residential property price index on June 29
Agerpres, Romanian Economic Highlights, June 28. The National Institute of Statistics (INS) will publish the price index of the residential properties for the first time on June 29, INS president Vergil Voineagu told a press conference on June 25. “The data are to be analyzed next week, and the intermediary data will be made public on June 29,” said Voineagu. He also stated that the INS does not seek to establish an average price for the real estate properties, but to publish an index that reflects the market trend. The data will be structured by Bucharest and the rest of the country, by rural and urban areas, as well as by total. In order for the data to be representative, they will be grouped by development regions, instead of counties. Voineagu pointed out that the INS had gathered the data on a monthly basis, from the notaries public, using an online form drafted together with the National Bank of Romania. The data gathered from the notaries public refer to the property’s location, the type of building and the construction year, the comfort level, construction materials and the contract price. The INS president said that in order to have a reliable data source, the institution’s experts gathered the prices of the real estate transactions resulted from negotiations and registered at the notaries public, not the prices published in the real-estate advertisements in the newspapers.
Most awaited real estate index to be introduced this year
The National Statistics Institute (INS) has committed to finalize the real estate index by the end of the second quarter this year, with a new method for the inflation rate calculation to be introduced in 2012. “The real estate index will be completed by the end of the second quarter this year. The calculation methodology was finalized in March 2009 and a document regarding this methodology was drawn up in April. Also last year there was issued the weighting system. The second stage of data collection is currently in progress, with a view to perform the simulation,” Vergil Voineagu, INS president told the Ziarul financiar daily. He said the offer price will not be taken into consideration, but the price set following the negotiation and authenticated by the notary public, for which a fee is charged. The National Bank of Romania (BNR), the National Statistics Institute and the National Union of Romanian Notaries Public have signed a cooperation protocol on the real estate index. The methodology for the calculation of property price index is at an incipient phase throughout Europe as well and there is no harmonized methodology available. People interested in purchasing a house or land will be able to learn what the price paid for a similar property within the same area is, for the first time, as the real estate market index will periodically be made public by the authorities. Basically, any person, be it a salesperson, real estate agency or a person looking for a property, will be able to know the real prices of the houses or lands in an area, as it has been happening in the European Union countries for many years. All countries have been faced with price adjustment on the real estate market over the past two years amid the international financial crisis following several years of steep increases. The real estate segment is a major component for every economy, including due to the impact it can have on the financial stability. Source: Agerpres.
